Today, April 21, marks 10 years since Prince’s sudden death at age 57, due to an accidental overdose of fentanyl. Different media have remembered the genius from Minneapolis by publishing interesting specials, such as The Guardian, which has featured revealing – and often complex – testimonies from his musical collaborators, or Rolling Stone, which has undertaken the arduous task of compiling his 100 best songs.
We are not going to sin with that ambition and we are going to limit the list to 10 fantastic Prince singles that remain somewhat forgotten in the popular imagination and that deserve to appear from time to time in his top 10 most listened to songs on streaming platforms. We invite you to comment on Prince’s legacy in the thread dedicated to the artist in our forums.
Just Long As We’re Together
Always mentioned as the first single of his entire career, ‘Soft and Wet’ has not been forgotten, although it is not Prince’s most listened to song either. The second single from their 1978 debut, ‘For You’, is less remembered, but its form of progressive disco-funk, which extends beyond 6 minutes thanks to the addition of a coda that belonged to a separate track, ‘Jelly Jam’, deserves more than one review. One of those topics in which to “get lost.”
Sexy Dancer
The transparent sexuality of Prince’s songs was scandalous at the time. ‘Sexy Dancer’, the dancey third single from ‘Prince’, was one of those that forced you to listen to it secretly, using suggestive gasps as a rhythm, a bit like Doechii does in ‘Denial Is a River’, but on a disco-funk basis instead of hip-hop. Peppered with clean keyboard riffs and jazzy pianos, ‘Sexy Dancer’ was Prince’s first single released outside the United States, but not in his own country.
Uptown
The punk, almost bedroom-pop pre-bedroom-pop sensibility of ‘Dirty Mind’ in terms of its production was simply ahead of its time, as was Prince himself. ‘Uptown’, the lively introductory single from that album, is fully representative of his libidinous but minimalist style, while its lyrics addressed racism using the metaphor of a utopian “suburb.” The keyboard riff in the chorus was irresistible on any dance floor.
Delirious
Such was Prince’s work pace that just a few months passed between the release of ‘Delirious’, the third single from ‘1999’, and ‘When Doves Cry’, the first from ‘Purple Rain’. ‘Delirious’ is a small capsule of where Prince’s creativity was at the time: bursting at the seams. Plastic synthesizer riffs, a rockabilly rhythm and the repetition of the song’s title built a single with an almost feverish development, but a lot of fun, which almost seems like a premonition of Gelli Haha.
Girls & Boys
This Prince single is not in the place it deserves. Almost cartoonish in production in its combination of saxophone, guitar squawks and funk percussion, it is one of their most fun yet musically rich singles. Of course, the entire ‘Parade’ band is here, including drummer Bobby Z and Prince’s then-fiancée, Susannah Melvoin. ‘Girls & Boys’ was the second single from ‘Parade’, that is, it succeeded the macrohit ‘Kiss’, but in the United States it was not released – ‘Mountains’ was chosen -, a complete missed opportunity. In the clip, Prince appears dressed as Josephine Baker.
Thunder
Officially released limited to the UK and Ireland, ‘Thunder’ opens ‘Diamonds & Pearls’ with a shot of pure musical virtuosity, fusing funk and rock rhythms with sharp synth riffs, a sitar melody, metal guitars, vocoded vocals, piano glissandos and other resources. The song perfectly paints the image of a soul tormented by “personal thunder,” a pure heroic epic to tell us about the night Prince decided to discard his famous ‘Black Album’: “Thunder, all through the night / And a promise to see Jesus in the morning light.” It sounds totally 90s, but its sophistication hasn’t gone out of style.
Peach
It’s so close to hard rock that ‘Peach’ almost doesn’t sound like a Prince song, but this single, released on the ‘The Hits / The B-Sides’ compilation during the height of his dispute with Warner Records, deserves to be remembered for its impressive electric guitar riffs. The lyrics describe a woman capable of turning a “gay preacher into a sinner,” but perhaps the most notable thing is its urgency, almost typical of garage rock. Another of the thousand faces of Prince.
Cinnamon Girl
The album that marked Prince’s return to a multinational company after his nameless and later independent stage was ‘Musicology’, an album that, without reaching the heights of his classics, had quite cool cuts like ‘Illusion, Coma, Pimp & Circumstance’ or this ‘Cinnamon Girl’, which served as the second single. In a light pop-rock style with soul harmonies, ‘Cinnamon Girl’ simply shows Prince comfortable in his role and doing what he does best.
Black Sweat
Prince didn’t always get it right following the musical trends of the moment, and there’s ‘Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic’, but in ‘Black Sweat’ he nailed the urban pop sound of 2006 – it sounds a bit like Timbaland – while still imprinting his style on it. ‘Black Sweat’ is pure tight synthetic funk taken to the extreme, addictive to death, and both the production and the melody are a masterclass in compositional synthesis. His two Grammy nominations point to a creative “peak” within the 21st century.
Breakdown
Many consider ‘Art Official Age’ to be Prince’s last “good” album; The truth is that, in an ocean of mediocre 21st century releases, the proposal of this album was fresh. Among his singles, ‘Breakdown’ has not been canonized among his great classics, but it is a lost gem within his most representative ballad style, and artists like Brittany Howard, from Alabama Shakes, have covered it live.
